Couple arrested in abduction, assault of Baltimore businessman

February 29, 1992|By Michael James and David Michael Ettlin | Michael James and David Michael Ettlin,Staff Writers

WESTMINSTER -- Two people were charged last night with abducting and robbing a Baltimore businessman who was stabbed, beaten and left for dead near a Carroll County creek earlier this week.

The victim, Frank Allen Storch, 34, a licensed private detective and real estate management company president, is recovering at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center. He was found walking along Arrington Road in Sykesville Wednesday afternoon, about 14 hours after a couple abducted him from a Jessup hotel parking lot.

Carroll County State's Attorney Thomas E. Hickman said that Mr. Storch knew at least one of the people arrested in the case but that he was not a party to any illegal activity with the suspect.

Charged with attempted murder, kidnapping and armed robbery were David Teddy Yoswick, 24, a warehouse worker who lives in the first block of Leatherwood Place, near Overlea, and Karen Sue Palido, 32, of the 6600 block of Washington Boulevard, Elkridge.

Police said the arrests followed a bedside interview yesterday with Mr. Storch, who was able to identify one suspect and provided the address of the trailer home on Washington Boulevard where the couple was later taken into custody.

The victim was visited at the trauma center Wednesday by Gov. William Donald Schaefer, who called him a "good friend."

"I didn't do anything," Ms. Palido insisted to a reporter last night as she was being taken before a court commissioner for a bail hearing. "I'm not involved. This is a mistake."

The woman said she is unemployed, the mother of two children, and had been dating Mr. Yoswick for three weeks.

Police said Mr. Storch had gone to the Holiday Inn on U.S. 1 in Jessup for a meeting about 10 p.m. Tuesday that was arranged, for undisclosed purposes, through his office. On the parking lot, a struggle ensued and the victim was thrown into a van.

Investigators believed the abductors wanted to steal money from an automated dispenser using Mr. Storch's American Express card, but could not get the code numbers from him immediately.

Mr. Storch called his wife about 10 a.m. Wednesday, saying he had been taken ill and spent the night in a hotel. About noon, police said, $3,500 was obtained in three withdrawals from the American Express machine at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

Police said the abductors kept him in handcuffs. Before being left at the creek near Sykesville, he was stabbed repeatedly and his head beaten against rocks, according to police.

Yesterday, eight $100 bills believed taken from the BWI machine and several $20 bills -- one of them bloodstained -- were found in a car outside Ms. Palido's trailer home. Also found was Mr. Storch's Walther semiautomatic pistol, which had been taken from him during the ordeal, police said.